In the midst of a presidential election year, Americans rightly expect to hear debates on almost every relevant topic. However, there is one topic that seems to be missing from the debate, even when it seems compellingly relevant: The "war on drugs." When we talk about Mexican and Central American immigration, we ignore the fact that many immigrants are unaccompanied children, refugees fleeing drug war violence, while drug warriors claim to be concerned about "the children." And when the violence follows the refugees, we blame them, not the drug war. [continues 484 words]
To the Editor: I am a former National Director of NORML and I publish MarijuanaNews.com. This article from Marijuana News may help explain my views more completely: Medical Marijuana Endgame: " 'So go ahead and die.' That would be all right?" "Congress has made that value judgment." Not Really, But The Bush Administration Has. The American People Have Not! At www.marijuananews.com. Your editorial "Marijuana Law Still Being Abused" ignores two possible explanations for why some jurors refused to convict a grower in a county where there is very strong support for cannabis, medical and otherwise. [continues 827 words]
Susan Martinuk's column about medical cannabis proves only that one should not rely on prohibitionists for accurate information. Martinuk says the British Medical Journal stated cannabis is no more effective in treating pain than traditional painkillers and, when used to treat nausea and vomiting, the side effects outweigh the benefits. I doubt whether she has read the BMJ article. I have. None of the studies reviewed by the Journal article involved the use of whole cannabis, just isolated synthetic cannabinoids. Most patients do not like synthetic THC and prefer whole cannabis. [continues 73 words]
In the March 16 editorial, Ottawa Drug Bill Should Go Ahead, which demanded that the "so-called marijuana activists" accept the justice of Prime Minister Paul Martin's so-called decriminalization bill, The Record says that marijuana "from a medical perspective, is no more harmful than tobacco or alcohol." Has The Record actually looked at the data on alcohol and tobacco? According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, tobacco accounts for 435,000 deaths annually and alcohol kills 85,000. How many are killed by marijuana? It is difficult to find any, although this does not prove that marijuana is "harmless." [continues 111 words]
Re: 'Police back off drug theory,' Times, Jan. 16 While it is admirable that the police want to be more accurate in labelling certain deaths as "drug related," it would be even more accurate if they were to label such deaths as "drug prohibition related," unless the deaths are directly related to the consumption of a drug, legal or illegal. Of course, if the police were to label such deaths properly, it would quickly become obvious that most "drug-related" deaths involved alcohol, and most of the others were related to the counterproductive laws, supported by the police bureaucracy and politicians like Paul Martin, Randy White and Rich Coleman. Richard Cowan, Vancouver [end]
WHAT IS IT ABOUT DEAD YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND? On Monday we finally learned that the Refugee Protection Division denied the Kubbys the protection of Canada. See http://www.irb.gc.ca/en/decisions/kubby/va2_01374_e.htm The Kubby case in California was rather complex legally. They were acquittedon all of the marijuana charges on which the search warrant was based, butthe judge nonetheless upheld the validity of the search. During the search the police claimed to have found an unusably small quantity of psilocybin mushroom and peyote cactus in a canister in a drawerin the guest bedroom. Inasmuch as Steve has written a book on psychedelicsit is plausible but unproven that they belong to him, but here is where isgets weird. [continues 2261 words]
Re: What have they been smoking in Ottawa? Rosie DiManno doesn't know what she is talking about when she says, "Or maybe we want Canada to be more like the Netherlands, with half the population walking around blissed-out and stupid and shiftless. They don't call it dope for nothing." First, the Dutch have a lower rate of cannabis use than does either Canada or the U.S. Second, Dutch marijuana users are neither "stupid nor shiftless." They are like all other Dutch: They want to separate cannabis from hard drugs and to be able to enjoy something that is far less damaging to both the individual and to society than alcohol. Is there any other group that the Star would smear with such a vile and wholly false stereotype? That sort of language poisons the public discourse. Richard Cowan, Vancouver, B.C. [end]
I'm responding to the article in Friday's Province which said two Vancouver brothers were reportedly caught in Ohio "with 158 kilograms of potent marijuana that police say is worth $24 million." That is pure prohibitionist propaganda. First, 158 kilograms (347 pounds) of pot would never fetch $24 million. That would be almost $70,000 per pound. It would be very unlikely to bring in even $8,000 per pound, unless it was broken into much smaller quantities and sold retail. [continues 93 words]
Dear Editor, I am puzzled by Troy Landreville's column [It still won't be legal, Jan. 7 Comment, Langley Advance News]. He begins by saying that "Marijuana advocates who use Holland as a poster child of the legalization of the drug probably haven't spent much time in Amsterdam's Red Light district at night." Well, actually, I have, and so have many others, but so what? The Red Light District is the oldest section of the city and home to the oldest profession, but it is also home to many restaurants, bars, hotels (including some very nice ones), and a large number of cannabis "coffee shops." [continues 335 words]
Editor, Canadian Alliance MP John Reynolds says that he believes the amount of marijuana decriminalized should be "five grams or less" ("Decriminalize pot, says local MP," Dec. 12 issue). However, for more than 20 years the penalty in the state of Ohio for possession of one hundred grams -- more than three times the amount provided for in the supposedly "liberal" Cana-dian reform -- is only $100. In Maine, there is only a fine of $200 to $400 for possession of 1.25 ounces. In California, with a population greater than Canada's, one ounce is subject to a fine of only $100. [continues 59 words]
Vancouver -- Your editorial Bogart That Joint (April 3) begins by urging parents to prepare themselves "by reviewing the evidence." So should editors. Although the study defined "heavy use" as smoking five or more joints a week, it reported that "current heavy users" had smoked, on average, 14 joints per week for three years. This is hardly typical. The study also reported "light current users" actually had gains in IQ of 5.8 points compared with only 2.6 points for non-users. That would seem to indicate that smoking five or fewer joints per week actually increases IQs! Would it work on editors? Seems worth trying. [continues 110 words]
Don't Ignore The Real Effects Of Prohibition. I respond to Ben Domenech's "Legalize With Caution" not because I think that he has too low an opinion of marijuana, but rather because - like many reluctant anti-prohibitionists - he underestimates the harm done by marijuana prohibition. Frankly, I was surprised that he defends the "gateway theory." I still think that it was best described by Bill Buckley almost 30 years ago when he defended my call for conservatives to support the legalization of marijuana in the December 6, 1972 issue of NR when he called it "Post Pot Ergo Propter Pot." [continues 615 words]
Editor: The Chronicle's article "An Ounce of prevention" Feb. 27, said, "Marijuana's THC content is about 10 times greater than it was in the '60s. It is now up to about 20 per cent,when previously it was down around two per cent." Well, this would be news to the RCMP, which says that the average potency of Canadian cannabis has been around six per cent THC for several years. Also there is no data on average potency for the '60s. [continues 82 words]
An Indictment, Not an Obituary Peter McWiliams, 50, best selling author, poet, photographer, publisher, libertarian crusader, medical marijuana activist, AIDS patient and cancer survivor, was found dead on the floor of his bathroom, apparently having choked to death after vomiting, for want of medical marijuana. There will be an autopsy, but whatever the immediate cause of death may have been, he was murdered by the United States Government as surely as if they shot him. Indeed, it would have been much more humane if they had just put a bullet in his head. No one should have to go through what he suffered at the hands of his country. [continues 2251 words]
The Hatch-Feinstein Methamphetamine Anti-Proliferation Act of 1999 Will Censor The Internet, Make It A Federal Crime To Teach Farmers To Grow Hemp, Or To Tell Medical Marijuana Patients How To Use or Grow Marijuana, Or Even To Link To A Site Selling Pipes! [From the bill: S.1428 Methamphetamine Anti-Proliferation Act of 1999 (Introduced in the Senate)] SEC. 5. ADVERTISEMENTS FOR DRUG PARAPHERNALIA AND SCHEDULE I CONTROLLED SUBSTANCES. (a) DRUG PARAPHERNALIA- Section 422 of the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 863) is amended [continues 399 words]
~~~~~~~~~~ Libertarian Party Organizations Now Committed To The Marijuana Issue. Large Number Of Plants Will Force Dealing With Difficult Questions - -- Analysis By Richard Cowan - January 22, 1999 The Kubby case is -- at the very least -- going to be very interesting. The absurd behavior of the police and prosecutors in arresting Steve and Michelle Kubby is already backfiring. Sending 12 armed police into the home of a nationally known medical marijuana user and political activist was dumb enough. [continues 2824 words]
It is a staple of the prohibitionist opposition to medical marijuana that the movement is "exploiting" the patients. Here is a somewhat different perspective. I was talking by phone to a friend in D.C. He told me that when he was about to get in bed late on a rather cold night last week he looked out his window and saw a man in a wheelchair dragging himself along by his one leg. He was putting up medical marijuana posters on my friend's street. To do this, the man had to push himself up on his one leg and hold on to the pole. [continues 398 words]
Also, they went virtually unanswered. In the age of the Internet, their free ride is over. It is ironic that this article appears in the same month with the Journal of the American Medical Association’s review of Marihuana, the Forbidden Medicine. http://www.marijuananews.com/journal_of_the_american_medical_.htm The JAMA review says, "It is difficult to see how the growing tide of acceptance of medical marijuana might be stemmed much longer by accusations of "covert legalization tactics." This article is an attempt to do just that. [continues 3578 words]
